What looks like focus, sounds like productivity, and convinces you that you’re capable of any feat just before your body collapses? Cue stimulants, confusing substances that make you look energetic and lively from the outside while slowly poisoning you from the inside.
But what are they, and how do they affect communities in South Carolina?
If you’ve ever watched the award-winning series, Breaking Bad, you’ve seen pop culture turn stimulants, mainly meth, into a storyline, but real life doesn’t wrap stimulant dependence up in a final episode. In South Carolina, you can find care that takes stimulant use disorder seriously, even when the world acts like it’s a side plot.
This article is for you if stimulants have started calling the shots, or if you worry they could. Keep reading if you want to join the fight against a stimulant crisis that too often stays under the radar, because you can take your life back, one real step at a time.
Understanding Stimulant Use Disorder
Stimulants have an uncanny ability to push your brain and body into an intoxicating overdrive, flooding reward pathways with positive feelings, only to lead to a brutal crash that tries to suck you back toward using just to feel normal again. This is how the StUD cycle begins.
Stimulant use disorder (StUD) can be serious and, sometimes, all-consuming. It can involve a dangerous stimulant dependence that forces anyone in its grasp to keep using even when health, relationships, safety, or peace of mind (or all of the above) collapse.
Stimulants can show up in a few different forms, including street drugs and prescription medications that patients may end up using in risky ways.
Common stimulants linked to StUD include:
- Methamphetamine
- Cocaine
- Amphetamine-type substances
- Ecstasy-type substances like MDMA
Right now, StUD continues to grow like a stubborn weed, creating some uniquely heavy challenges. Reports show that in 2022 alone, about 35 million people worldwide met criteria for StUD, and in the U.S., about 35,000 people died from stimulant overdose that same year, which puts the risk into sharp focus. Many people also mix stimulants with other substances, and across multiple states, a large share of overdose deaths have involved both a stimulant and an opioid.
Despite the fact that use rates are currently rising year over year, momentum to end this epidemic is strong, and researchers keep pushing for better tools. Right now, treatment often centers on contingency management and cognitive behavioral therapy, because no FDA-approved medication for StUD exists yet. At the same time, the FDA has encouraged broader ways of measuring progress, like reductions in use, and researchers have begun exploring new options in clinical trials.
You may hear promising things about:
- Contingency management (CM)
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Medication combinations under study
- Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy trials
- Monoclonal antibodies that can help block stimulant effects
Explore StUD Treatment Options in South Carolina
If the hope of innovations for StUD treatment isn’t enough to help you put stimulants down, step away from everything and focus fully on regaining stability in residential treatment in Cameron, SC, with a group of professionals and peers equipped to support you.
At Waypoint Recovery Center, our team helps you understand the real-life consequences that bubble up underneath StUD, and how to effectively treat and manage the disorder. You can expect daily groups, recovery education, individual therapy, and 24/7 nursing support, so you don’t have to power through hard moments alone.
What residential treatment in Cameron, SC can offer:
- A peaceful environment where you can actually reset
- A structured routine that can help you identify and overcome craving triggers
- Daily process groups with 12-step support
- Education on recovery skills and relapse prevention
- Individual and group therapy tailored to your needs
Waypoint also offers outpatient and supplemental treatment options in North Charleston, SC, which can work well if you need care while keeping up with work, school, or family responsibilities. Through these programs, you can continue building momentum while living at home and practicing new coping skills in the real world. Outpatient care can also serve as a supportive step-down after you complete residential treatment with us.
You can expect to have:
- Flexible scheduling that fits daily responsibilities
- Continued access to therapy and recovery education
- Ongoing structure during life transitions
- Support while practicing skills in real-world settings
Beat StUD With Waypoint Recovery Center
StUD can make life feel rushed, pressured, and unstable, but treatment can help you slow down and rebuild. If meth use has played a role in your story, learning more about treatment options in South Carolina can help you feel more informed, more prepared, and more empowered to take your next step.
